Ani's 2017 Log

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
User avatar
Ani
Brown Belt
Posts: 1433
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2016 8:58 am
Location: Alaska
Languages: English (N), speaks French, Russian & Icelandic (beginner)
x 3840
Contact:

Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Ani » Tue Jun 13, 2017 2:10 pm

Oh my gosh. I need to stay away from language discussions in other parts of life. The only other board I read, topic of homeschooling, had a discussion thread today about the duolingo fluency % and "how accurate it is". Barely anyone stopped to consider whether they can even define fluency, and whether you can define fluency by a % number (which among other things, presupposes you know the whole). Many people have shared their % and said it feels accurate! One of the people who I generally like suggested that you probably can't get past a 5000 word vocabulary without long term immersion in the country.

This reminds me of an anecdote from Richard Feynman. The night he was awarded his Nobel Prize he was speaking with a princess of Denmark
She turned to me and said, "Oh! You're one of the Nobel-Prize-winners. In what field did you do your work?"
"In physics," I said.
"Oh. Well, nobody knows anything about that, so I guess we can't talk about it."
"On the contrary," I answered. "It's because somebody knows something about it that we can't talk about physics. It's the things that nobody knows anything about that we can discuss. We can talk about the weather; we can talk about social problems; we can talk about psychology; we can talk about international finance--gold transfers we can't talk about, because those are understood--so it's the subject that nobody knows anything about that we can all talk about!"


Anywho...
Not sure I am gong to survive my plans of finishing FSI, at least not in the way I usually do it. I'm going to make myself get through unit 7 this week (still review) and see how I am feeling for next week. Cavesa turned me on to Rype which looks really interesting. Part of me is considering signing up for a month, the other part of me tries to remember how insanely busy and unpredictable my life is right now. I really DO want to keep progressing in French, but I don't want to put the work in. Getting into a routine with a teacher could be fun. I think I am just digging for ways to review advanced grammar without having to try very hard, but I am not sure that exists.

Russian went from "I am having so much fun dabbling" to "I need to know that rest of this language NOW" very quickly this weekend when I realized I can't really read enough Russian for a proper web search. I don't know why that was surprising to me :lol: I really don't need them yet but I was looking for transcripts for мажор. I think that after I finish le russe à votre rythme book 1, I might do French to Russian Glossika.

In the process of poking around, I realized you can finally search Netflix itself by audio and subtitle language. Little late to the party, Netflix. A whole industry of websites has emerged in your total lack of effort to make your content properly searchable. You still can't place any filters over top of audio or subtitle language, you can't search for a combination of audio and subtitles even for a single language combination, and some of my search results were inaccurate, but hey. It's a start.
3 x
But there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.

User avatar
MamaPata
Brown Belt
Posts: 1019
Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2016 9:25 am
Location: London
Languages: English (N), French (C1*), Russian (B1), Spanish (B1).

Long lost: Arabic and Latin.
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3004
x 1807

Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby MamaPata » Tue Jun 13, 2017 9:10 pm

I found that a lot of Netflix suggestions were inaccurate, which was annoying. Still, progress I guess!
1 x
Corrections appreciated.

User avatar
Ani
Brown Belt
Posts: 1433
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2016 8:58 am
Location: Alaska
Languages: English (N), speaks French, Russian & Icelandic (beginner)
x 3840
Contact:

Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Ani » Thu Jun 15, 2017 12:47 am

This forum needs a :baghead: smilie.

Oh guys... I am awful :oops: I just can't do FSI every day. I just can't. I know I am not the first person who has made a plan and then changed it but.. uggh. And on TOP of that.. I was up with the baby at 4am and sort of grouchy. The sun was so shiny and bright and the birds were singing and I KNEW I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep quickly. So I thought.. "you know what would make me happy? ... Glossika". So I got out of bed and bought FR-RU Glossika. And then while I was waiting for my incredibly slow internet to download the files, I bought some jeans and a couple cardi's and some exercise pants that I really did need. Like I can justify unnecessary purchases by also buying some necessary things. :roll:

And now I feel kind of excited and also guilty. I can't see how I am going to have more time for Glossika than I had for FSI. :oops:
4 x
But there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.

User avatar
neofight78
Blue Belt
Posts: 539
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2015 8:02 pm
Location: Novosibirsk, Russia
Languages: English (N), Russian (B2+), Spanish (A0)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=833
x 1232

Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby neofight78 » Thu Jun 15, 2017 1:50 am

Ani wrote:Like I can justify unnecessary purchases by also buying some necessary things. :roll:


Great tip, I'm going to use it! :D
1 x

User avatar
Ani
Brown Belt
Posts: 1433
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2016 8:58 am
Location: Alaska
Languages: English (N), speaks French, Russian & Icelandic (beginner)
x 3840
Contact:

Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Ani » Thu Jun 15, 2017 3:03 am

neofight78 wrote:
Ani wrote:Like I can justify unnecessary purchases by also buying some necessary things. :roll:


Great tip, I'm going to use it! :D


It works really well. Then you can look at your finances and say "On average, I buy more necessary things than unnecessary things" and feel good about your balanced and sensible budget.
2 x
But there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.

User avatar
smallwhite
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2386
Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2015 6:55 am
Location: Hong Kong
Languages: Native: Cantonese;
Good: English, French, Spanish, Italian;
Mediocre: Mandarin, German, Swedish, Dutch.
.
x 4876

Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby smallwhite » Thu Jun 15, 2017 3:16 am

Ani wrote:I think I am just digging for ways to review advanced grammar without having to try very hard, but I am not sure that exists.

For advanced grammar, I used A Comprehensive French Grammar by Glanville Price. Grammaire Progressive De Francais Avancé feels very easy in comparison.
1 x
Dialang or it didn't happen.

User avatar
Ani
Brown Belt
Posts: 1433
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2016 8:58 am
Location: Alaska
Languages: English (N), speaks French, Russian & Icelandic (beginner)
x 3840
Contact:

Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Ani » Thu Jun 15, 2017 5:13 am

smallwhite wrote:
Ani wrote:I think I am just digging for ways to review advanced grammar without having to try very hard, but I am not sure that exists.

For advanced grammar, I used A Comprehensive French Grammar by Glanville Price. Grammaire Progressive De Francais Avancé feels very easy in comparison.


I just looked at the TOC. Looks super thorough and interesting. How did you use this book? Looks like it has no exercises, but I assume (or maybe not) you did more than just read it?
1 x
But there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.

User avatar
neofight78
Blue Belt
Posts: 539
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2015 8:02 pm
Location: Novosibirsk, Russia
Languages: English (N), Russian (B2+), Spanish (A0)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=833
x 1232

Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby neofight78 » Thu Jun 15, 2017 5:22 am

Ani wrote:It works really well. Then you can look at your finances and say "On average, I buy more necessary things than unnecessary things" and feel good about your balanced and sensible budget.


This is the work of pure genius! :D
2 x

User avatar
smallwhite
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2386
Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2015 6:55 am
Location: Hong Kong
Languages: Native: Cantonese;
Good: English, French, Spanish, Italian;
Mediocre: Mandarin, German, Swedish, Dutch.
.
x 4876

Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby smallwhite » Thu Jun 15, 2017 5:23 am

Ani wrote:
smallwhite wrote:
Ani wrote:I think I am just digging for ways to review advanced grammar without having to try very hard, but I am not sure that exists.

For advanced grammar, I used A Comprehensive French Grammar by Glanville Price. Grammaire Progressive De Francais Avancé feels very easy in comparison.


I just looked at the TOC. Looks super thorough and interesting. How did you use this book? Looks like it has no exercises, but I assume (or maybe not) you did more than just read it?

Umm... what do you mean by how I used it, can you give me some options to choose from?
0 x
Dialang or it didn't happen.

User avatar
Ani
Brown Belt
Posts: 1433
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2016 8:58 am
Location: Alaska
Languages: English (N), speaks French, Russian & Icelandic (beginner)
x 3840
Contact:

Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Ani » Thu Jun 15, 2017 6:31 am

smallwhite wrote:
Ani wrote:
smallwhite wrote:
Ani wrote:I think I am just digging for ways to review advanced grammar without having to try very hard, but I am not sure that exists.

For advanced grammar, I used A Comprehensive French Grammar by Glanville Price. Grammaire Progressive De Francais Avancé feels very easy in comparison.


I just looked at the TOC. Looks super thorough and interesting. How did you use this book? Looks like it has no exercises, but I assume (or maybe not) you did more than just read it?

Umm... what do you mean by how I used it, can you give me some options to choose from?


I'm going to use the dumb internet acronym ELI5 -- explain like I'm 5. I'm a beginner language learner. I know hour to study from a math book. You read the chapter, think through the examples, maybe write them out and re-do them yourself, then complete the practice problems. If I take notes, I am writing down theorems, noting my own questions so I can dig for background information, and summarizing the uses of the particular information. Studying physics is the same with more questions and rabbit trails to research, and more summarizing the uses and steps of a particular problem and its relation to other things.
I sort of know how to read a book for literary analysis. You summarize the structure of the book, identify the writer's key words and what he means by their use, mark assumptions, arguments and conclusions etc.
I feel like an idiot when I look at a grammar. What are the important notes to take? What activities do you do to be certain you are internalizing the material? What prevents you from looking a set of rules and saying "isn't that nice" and having them go in one ear and out the other? Do you practice each section in a certain way or do writing based on the example text?
2 x
But there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests